Ordering content by mobile phone to be played on consumer devices

ABSTRACT

A system, device and method are provided to purchase, download and obtain transferable rights to play content using a mobile telephone. In an alternative embodiment, the mobile telephone is used to purchase content, which then is downloaded using other channels, e.g., a broadband using other consumer devices and played by these other devices.

This application is the U.S. National Phase application under 35 U.S.C.§ 371 of International Application No. PCT/IB2006/050155, filed on Jan.16, 2006, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/646,090, filed on Jan. 21, 2005.

The present invention relates to a system, device, and method to order,pay for, download and obtain transferable rights to play content using amobile telephone. Alternatively, the mobile telephone is used topurchase content, which is then downloaded using other channels, i.e., abroadband using other consumer devices and played by these devices.

Typically, in buying downloadable content, the same channel is used tobuy content to consume or use the content. For example, content (music,video clips) can be bought on mobile phones to be consumed on mobilephones. Content can also be bought on personal computers (PCs), e.g.,Apples iTunes, to be consumed on PCs. The security of the transaction isalso an issue for such content-providing services.

These existing solutions to purchasing and obtaining content poseseveral problems. Purchasers must be co-located with a consumer devicein order to obtain content. Secondly, they require modifying consumerdevices. Thirdly, they require some type of connection to a provider anda payment service. The latter is a complex infrastructure and limits theconsumer to a given provider and payment service. Makers of consumerdevices resist modifying their products in such a limited fashion.

Thus, given the demand for pay-per-content downloadable products, thereis a need for a secure ordering-to-download protocol that does notrequire a major consumer device modification and does not limit contentsources and payment options.

The system and method of the present invention provide a technique forselecting, purchasing and obtaining transferable rights to digitalcontent using the already available infrastructure supporting mobiletelephones.

In this system and method, existing payment services available on mobiletelephones, offered by the operators thereof (for ordering ring tones,etc.), provide a secure way to transfer the rights to the content toconsumer equipment that is ubiquitous, readily available, has a widegeographic distribution, reliable and already in the possession ofconsumers. Further, the system and method of the present invention doesnot require any access by consumer devices to payment services, makingconsumer equipment much simpler to implement. Moreover, the consumerdevices do not need to be connected on-line, making it possible toconsume content on consumer equipment that is not connected to anon-line service, e.g., portable music and video players.

FIG. 1 illustrates a user-selecting content from a website anddownloading the rights to a mobile telephone.

FIG. 2 illustrates the user placing the mobile telephone of FIG. 1 nextto an Internet-enabled stereo system for streaming of the selectedcontent.

FIG. 3 illustrates a mobile telephone modified according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a wireless home network comprising wireless devicescommunicating with a home gateway using, e.g., WiFi technology or wiredEthernet technology to render and download content purchased with amobile telephone in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a portable player interfaced to the wireless networkof FIG. 4 to transfer downloaded content to a portable player via ahardwired connection, according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a mobile telephone used to purchase contenttransferring downloaded content to the mobile telephone via a hardwiredconnection, according to the present invention.

It is to be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art that thefollowing descriptions are provided for purposes of illustration and notfor limitation. An artisan understands that there are many variationsthat lie within the spirit of the invention and the scope of theappended claims. Unnecessary details of known functions and operationsmay be omitted from the current description so as not to obscure thepresent invention.

The system and method of the present invention provide a mobiletelephone-based system for ordering, paying for and transferring rightsto downloadable content. In a preferred embodiment, content can bedownloaded to the mobile telephone and transferred from the mobiletelephone to another device for consumption of the content. In a secondpreferred embodiment, the content is directly downloaded to the consumerdevice.

Mobile entertainment is a flourishing business, driven in better part bythe wide availability and easy connectivity of wireless media devices.In the system and method of the present invention, a component of thetechnology of Near Field Communications (NFC) allows mobile networkoperators to leverage their infrastructure investment to support usingit for mobile entertainment content selection, purchase and delivery.The present invention provides a secure environment for delivery ofcontent to mobile devices by providing Digital Rights Management (DRM)protection of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) DRM 2.0 Enabler Release.The OMA DRM 2.0 enables, among other features, the protection ofcontent, such as music tracks, video clips, and games with enhancedsecurity and improved support to preview and share content. OMA DRM 2.0supports audio/video rendering, streaming content and access toprotected content using multiple devices, such as the transferablerights of the present invention.

Referring now to FIG. 1, in a preferred embodiment a user selects atrack from a music-distributing website 100 using a personal computer(PC), pays for the track using a credit card service of the mobiletelephone provider 103 and downloads the rights to their mobiletelephone 101. In an alternative embodiment the user selects a portalservice directly on his mobile phone and on this portal selects somecontent and buys it. The purchase transaction is handled by the mobileoperator (not via a credit card) and the purchase price is charged tothe purchaser's telephone account. The download of the object rights inthe first embodiment is accomplished using NFC technology 102. In thiscase the object rights have been obtained through a PC-then the objectrights are transferred from the PC to the mobile telephone using NFCtechnology. In the alternative embodiment, the object rights aredirectly sent by the mobile telephone operator to the mobile telephoneover the wireless telephone channel in a secure way. This alternative ismuch simpler because a PC is not required and the purchase can be madeat any time and any place. Note that any interface to the Internet thatsupports a Web browser or an equivalent interface can be used topurchase the content, including the mobile telephone itself.

FIG. 2 illustrates the user placing the mobile telephone 101 next to anInternet-enabled stereo system 202, to download the rights to thepurchased content, and the stereo system automatically streams theselected track, e.g., the purchased content 201. Content can bedownloaded to a mobile device with sufficient memory and thentransferred to another device. The stereo can have a local non-volatilememory to capture the track and then repeatedly render it. Makingremovable copies, i.e., on a CD/DVD or a cassette tape or otherremovable memory is also an option.

The essential feature of a preferred embodiment is that the mobiletelephone can securely transfer rights to consumer devices to playcontent on those consumer devices. Further, when it is possible toestablish a secure connection between the mobile telephone and aconsumer device, all relevant information concerning a purchased contentcan be transferred between them. This allows the consumer device toautomatically retrieve the necessary content from a content provider andmake it available in a transparent way on all local devices of apurchaser, i.e., home consumer devices and other portable devices ownedby the content purchaser.

In all embodiments, purchased content is distributed in encrypted formand can be transported in encrypted form to, i.e., a home and acrosshome devices, in a transparent and unlimited fashion. In a preferredembodiment, NFC is used for the transfer of rights from the mobiletelephone to the consumer devices, thus, providing a more secure channelthan other communication channels.

A preferred hardware implementation is illustrated in FIG. 3, in which amobile telephone is modified according to the present invention byextending the mobile telephone's capabilities with and NFC-compliantmodule 302 comprising a transceiver (not shown) interface to an antenna301 for sending and receiving wireless messages. Any device that is tofunction in cooperation with this NFC-enabled mobile telephone must alsobe modified to be NFC-enabled. In a preferred embodiment, the mobiletelephone has been modified to incorporate a DRM system, i.e., the OMADRM 2.0 standard discussed above (see also www.openmobilealliance.org/tech/release.html, the entire contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference). A DRM system includes capabilities to exportthe right to play a content object and communicates this right to an NFCinterface. In a preferred embodiment, this is done by exchanging the keyto decrypt the content between the mobile telephone and a consumerdevice. This key is received using NFC by a consumer device and theconsumer device uses this key to decrypt downloaded content. The objectkeys obtained on the mobile telephone are managed in a Key and contentmanagement module 303 also incorporated into the mobile telephone thatreceives and stores the key at the time of the purchase of the content(see FIG. 1) in the key and content storage 304. The mobile telephonecan include at least one USB port 305 operably connected to the key andcontent management module 303 to receive content over a hardwiredconnection from another device that previously received purchasedcontent.

A home network is also required, see FIG. 4. As illustrated, NFCtechnology is used in each device only to transfer the object rights andkeys since the bandwidth of NFC is too limited to transfer voluminousdata.

The mobile telephone requires a connection to the home network for atleast two usage scenarios. First, when the purchaser is not at home whencontent is bought, the purchaser may need to connect to the consumerdevice that is at home to communicate information concerning thepurchased content (i.e., the location on the Internet for obtaining thecontent). If the purchase of the content is accomplished when thepurchaser is at home, the mobile telephone does not need to be connectedto the home network. In the latter case, NFC is used to communicate thepurchased content information (including the object rights) to theconsumer device.

In a preferred embodiment, a secure on-line wired or wireless connectionis established between the mobile telephone 101 and the home network 400via a home gateway 404. Then the mobile telephone can communicate overthe home network 400 with at least one consumer device 401-404 connectedto the home network to inform at least one consumer device 401-404 of atleast one purchased content item. An access point is needed only whenthe consumer devices are connected wirelessly (using, e.g., WiFi) to thehome gateway, and the role of the home gateway is to connect to theInternet.

In a preferred embodiment, the home consumer device takes action torequest the content to be downloaded rather than having the contentpushed by the content provider because of firewall and other issues.There are two ways to instruct a consumer device 401-404 to do this: (1)when the purchaser is away from home, the mobile telephone 101 can senda message over a GSM/GPRS channel (or its equivalent) to the homeconsumer device 404-404 in a secure way; and (2) when the purchaser isat home the purchaser can send a message from the mobile telephone 101to the home device over GPRS, but there is also the possibility ofactivating the home consumer device 401-404 directly, i.e., using NFC.The main point here is that the mobile telephone 101 itself, having allthe knowledge of the object rights, can instruct the consumer device(automatically) 401-404 to request that the content be downloaded to theconsumer device 401-404. Then, the home consumer device 401-404 candecrypt the downloaded content using the communicated key sent to theconsumer device 401-404 by the mobile telephone 101.

Then, when the purchaser wants to render the downloaded content, i.e.,view or hear or play it, the purchaser needs only to start the consumerdevice 401-404 and is informed that content has been downloaded. Forexample, a TV screen 402 displays the titles of videos that have beenautomatically downloaded by the TV 402. As a part of the User Interfaceprovided by the system and method of the present invention, the consumerdevice (in this case the TV) can ask the purchaser to put the mobiletelephone near the NFC connection on the consumer device. The key can betransferred to the consumer device 401-404 without any action requiredon the mobile telephone 101. This makes the application very intuitiveand easy to use for the purchaser.

In an alternative embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 5, if the purchaserwants to transfer the identical downloaded content to a portable player501, a suitable interface must be available on the portable device,e.g., USB 305, and the user must transfer the content that waspreviously downloaded to a network device 401-404 to the portable player501. In the present NFC example, an NFC interface must also be availableon the portable player 501 and the portable player 501 must be modifiedin accordance with the present invention. The consumer devices 401-404must be modified in the following way: have an NFC interface (tocommunicate with the mobile telephone), have a means to receive anobject right or a key in order to decrypt the received content and ameans to decrypt the received content (in a software or a hardware). Inorder to play the purchased content on the NFC-modified portable player501, the purchaser must hold the mobile telephone 101 close to theportable player 501 so that the content key can then be transferred fromthe mobile telephone 101 to the portable player 501. Then the portableplayer 501 can decrypt and play the purchased content. It should benoted that another person other than the purchaser could perform some ofthese required actions if that other person has access to the mobiletelephone of the purchaser and the use of the term purchaser is notmeant to be limiting in any sense.

In another alternative embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 5, a purchasermay want to purchase content to be used on a mobile telephone 101 butdoes not want to use the 3G or GPRS channel of the mobile telephone 101to download the purchased content. Instead, the purchaser firstpurchases the content (see, e.g., FIG. 1) and then downloads the contentto a consumer device that includes storage, e.g., a DVD/CD recorder 403of a home network 400. Another connection, such as a USB connection 305,is used to transfer the content from the storage of the consumer device403 to the mobile telephone 101 where it is decrypted and played at thepurchaser's convenience.

The present invention is not limited to mobile entertainment, but isapplicable to other types of content delivery services such ason-the-spot customized news and information.

While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have beenillustrated and described, it will be understood by those skilled in theart that the management frame, device architecture and methods asdescribed herein are illustrative, and various changes and modificationsmay be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereofwithout departing from the true scope of the present invention. Inaddition, many modifications may be made to adapt the teachings of thepresent invention to a particular situation without departing from itscentral scope, e.g., using a private transmission media such as cable.Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited tothe particular embodiments disclosed as the best mode contemplated forcarrying out the present invention, but that the present inventioninclude all embodiments falling with the scope of the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system including an interface device, aplurality of consumer devices to obtain at least one object right to atleast one content object to be played on any consumer device of saidplurality, wherein at least one of the plurality of consumer devices isan Internet connected network device, the system comprising: a firstdevice and a second device of the plurality of consumer devices; thefirst device having: a first device processor coupled to the interfacedevice; and a non-transitory first device memory containing instructionswhich when executed by the first device processor causes the firstdevice processor to perform acts of: transmitting, by the first device,a request to a content provider to purchase a content object through thefirst device; receiving, by the first device, from the content provider,an object right and an object decryption key corresponding to therequested content object; storing, by the first device, the object rightand the object decryption key; transmitting, by the first device to thesecond device, information that identifies the requested content object;and the second device having a second device processor and anon-transitory second device memory containing instructions which whenexecuted by the second device processor causes the second deviceprocessor to perform acts of: receiving, by the second device from thefirst device, the information that identifies the requested contentobject; downloading, by the second device, the requested content fromthe content provider based on the received information that identifiesthe requested content object; storing, by the second device, thedownloaded content; displaying, by the second device, a request to auser that the first device be brought in near field communications (NFC)proximity to the second device; retrieving, by the second device, theobject right and the object decryption key from the first device;determining, by the second device, the object's rights from theretrieved object right; and decrypting, by the second device, thedownloaded content using the retrieved object decryption key inaccordance with the determined object's rights.
 2. The system of claim1, wherein the interface device and the second device include near fieldcommunications (NFC) technology.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein theact of downloading the requested content comprises an act of downloadingthe requested content via a wired coupling.
 4. The system of claim 3,wherein the second device further comprises a USB port; and the act ofdownloading the requested content comprises an act of downloading therequested content via the USB port.
 5. The system of claim 2, whereinthe second device is a portable content player and the second deviceprocessor of the portable content player performs the act of downloadingthe requested content to the portable content player via a wiredcoupling.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein: the first device furthercomprises a first USB port; the portable content player furthercomprises a second USB port; and the wired coupling is a wiredconnection between the first and second USB ports.
 7. The system ofclaim 1, wherein said interface device comprises an antenna connected toa receiver and transmitter for receiving and sending the object rightand object decryption key from and to, respectively, the first device.8. The system of claim 7, wherein the interface device includes nearfield communications (NFC) technology.
 9. A method to obtain at leastone object right to at least one content object to be played on any of aplurality of consumer devices, the method comprising acts of:transmitting, by a mobile phone, a request to a content provider topurchase a content object through the mobile phone; receiving, by themobile phone, from the content provider, an object right and an objectdecryption key; storing, by the mobile phone the object right and theobject decryption key; transmitting from the mobile phone to a seconddevice information that identifies the requested content object;receiving by the second device from the mobile phone the informationthat identifies the requested content object; downloading, by the seconddevice, the requested content from the content provider in response tothe information that identifies the requested content object; storing,by the second device, the downloaded content; displaying, by the seconddevice, a request to a user that the mobile phone be brought in nearfield communications (NFC) proximity to the second device; retrieving,by the second device, the object right, and the object decryption keyfrom the mobile phone; and decrypting, by the second device, thedownloaded content using the retrieved object decryption key inaccordance with the retrieved object right.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein the mobile phone and the second device comprise near fieldcommunications (NFC) communication technology.
 11. The system of claim1, wherein the first device is a mobile telephone and the contentprovider is a mobile telephone operator.
 12. The method of claim 9,wherein the content provider is a mobile telephone operator, the methodcomprising an act of the mobile telephone operator charging a mobiletelephone account associated with the mobile phone for the requestedcontent object.